Hi All,
I observed the JAWSAT launch from Kitt Peak tonight. I wandered out
into the cold and wind on the rocks just next to our dome just after 3:00
UT, waiting, wondering what I'd see. I was looking low in the NW, in the
usual direction of launches from Vandenberg and wasn't seeing anything,
when suddenly, an irregularly shaped bluish-white cloud appeared about 20
degrees high almost due west. It expanded quickly and grew to cover
almost half the western sky, extending up about 60 degrees and down to
about 10 or 15 degrees elevation. As it faded, I started to head back
around the south side of the dome (at about 3:11 UT more or less) and saw
a 2nd plume low in the SW sky with a brighter head on the left (south)
side of a shallow conical nearly horizontally directed plume. It had a
little hook on the bright end, and the general shape reminded me of an old
Edison era phonograph. It faded even faster than the first plume. It was
quite spectacular. Too bad I didn't have my camera set up! Drats!
Jim.
Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu
University of Arizona 520/621-2717
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe'
in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 26 2000 - 19:32:35 PST